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The last 20 years have seen the development of sophisticated techniques for analysing individual data within a hierarchical context and the growing availability of good data sets to which these techniques can be applied. The modelling of pupil performance controlling for prior attainment has led to a type of analysis commonly titled ‘value-added’. Concern for school factors which affect pupil progress has given rise to ‘school effectiveness’ research. This article outlines the history of these linked movements, mainly with reference to England and Wales, but developments in other countries are also outlined. It discusses some of the objections that have been raised, and comments on possible future directions.

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This paper argues that much contemporary educational policy makes assumptions about learning that are directly contradicted by the best research and theorising of learning that has occurred over the last decade and more. This worrying mismatch is largely attributable to adherence by policy makers (and other key stakeholders such as employers), to ‘common sense’ notions of learning transfer. In fact, these ‘common sense’ notions of transfer have increasingly been discarded even in the learning transfer literature. However, we go further in arguing that transfer is a totally inappropriate metaphor for thinking about most learning, but especially for vocational learning. Accepting that thought about learning inevitably involves metaphors, we consider the merits and otherwise of various other learning metaphors including participation and construction. We conclude that the conceptual flaws of transfer can be avoided by employing alternative metaphors. The value of our recommended alternative is illustrated by its power to illuminate data on learning collected from various research projects.

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Continuing professional development (CPD) is increasingly becoming recognised as important for all professionals in order to maintain and develop their competence. Many professions, especially in the health field, require evidence of CPD in order for professionals to be granted continuing registration as practitioners. Given its accreditation as well as developmental uses, it is important that CPD is evaluated. The present study examines the usefulness of a hierarchical model for the evaluation of CPD for teachers. The data were derived from a sample of 223 CPD coordinators and 416 teachers from a randomly selected sample of 1000 schools in England. Questionnaire data were analysed using Rasch modelling. The results suggest a reasonable fit with the model, with participant satisfaction being the most commonly evaluated outcome while participants’ use of new skills and student outcomes were the least likely to be evaluated, together with value for money according to teachers only. The implications for teachers’ CPD are discussed.

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Drawing on interview data derived from two case studies of teachers in their first year in the profession, this article examines the difficulties that confront new teachers as they move from a Postgraduate Certificate in Education course into their first teaching post. It questions the value of those discursive practices, promulgated by the Teacher Training Agency through ‘Qualifying to teach’, that construct teaching as a set of discrete competences or standards, and argues that Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concepts of legitimate peripheral participation and communities of practice are useful tools with which to analyse the sociocultural complexity of the new teachers’ experiences.

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Our understanding of a rapidly changing British society is currently being made more difficult as a result of the underplaying of sexual politics. More specifically, contemporary academic and political representations of changing social relations within institutional sites, such as family life, schooling, training and the workplace, are helping to make invisible emerging identities. This article focuses upon ethnographic research on a Modern Apprenticeship in the late 1990s. It sets out to highlight the productiveness of theory-led empirical work, exploring the local production within a further education site of masculine identities. These identities are, of course, class based and ethnically shaped and these dimensions will be referred to at particular places in the text. However, the emphasis here is upon the complex interplay between labour process, training cultures and institutional restructuring, with questions of changing male subjectivities in relation to emerging hetero(sexual) styles.

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There have been numerous attempts in the past few years within education research - and social science research more generally - to alter the character of research practice(s). In particular, there has been a systematic effort to address perceived shortcomings in research practice through a series of ‘research-capacity building’ initiatives, aimed at the restructuring of professional learning. In this article the authors explore empirically the ways in which different modes of professional learning are implicated in the social practices of education research. These considerations lead to the conclusion that the currently dominant approaches to research-capacity building are based on an underestimation of the difficulties in influencing the professional learning of educational researchers significantly and, thereby, changing the practices of educational research. More realistic expectations of these forms of research-capacity building, in turn, suggest the need to develop alternative approaches that acknowledge the exigencies of the current social organisation of educational research more fully.

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In the late twentieth century, accountability and value for money are two of the major themes influencing developments in education. Reflecting these themes, recent government legislation has produced a set of teaching competences, later revised as standards, for use in initial teacher education and assessment of teaching performance. They are used as criteria for teacher training, in some cases forming the theoretical underpinning of courses. This article argues that the model of knowledge essential for teaching, presented by the 10/97 standards, is impoverished. Instead there will be presented a comprehensive model of knowledge bases for teaching, which can inform our understanding of teaching and provide a more sophisticated theoretical underpinning than that imposed by government legislation. The model was developed through a recent doctoral study of subject knowledge and teaching competences. It is illustrated by an example of teaching in history, which shows how it can act as a theoretical underpinning both for experienced and beginning teachers. Show less

This article examines the circumstances affecting creative teaching and learning within the specific context of English further education (FE) - a sector which has proved to be particularly fertile ground for performativity. Beginning with an analysis of notions of creativity in education and a description of the peculiar history and policy context of FE, the article problematises the relationship between representations of creativity and the current situation of teachers and learners. Drawing on a range of empirical studies and policy analyses, it is argued that FE is increasingly positioned at the ‘lower end’ of a largely class-based division of post-compulsory education in England. In such a division, the authors argue, meaningful creativity is difficult to achieve. Within the performative context of FE, attempts to interpret official discourse on creativity may only serve to reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities in education.

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This article presents multivariate analyses of the characteristics associated with both participation in adult education and the intention to participate in future learning. It uses questionnaire data from more than 47,000 individuals collected by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) over the course of nine annual surveys administered between 2002 and 2010. It reviews both recent and historical policy in the area of ‘lifelong learning’ and considers the findings of previous empirical research in the area. The results of the current study support previous findings suggesting that participation in ‘later’ learning is most strongly associated with positive ‘learning dispositions’ and extended participation in initial, full-time education. While other socio-economic factors were related to participation in adult learning, the explanatory power of these variables was much weaker. Despite dramatic changes in online technologies and a ‘massification’ of Internet access over the period studied, there was no evidence that information and communications technologies were either increasing or widening access to participation.

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There is a cross-national trend towards unified curriculum and qualifications frameworks in upper secondary education, but such reforms face epistemological, political and institutional barriers and ‘unification’ remains a contested issue in many countries, including England. This article examines the experience of the Scottish Higher Still reform, one of the most systematic examples of this trend. It presents data from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study which included case studies of schools and colleges, surveys of all secondary schools and colleges in Scotland, analyses of Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data and interviews with key informants. Higher Still’s climbing frame model of provision provided better learning opportunities for different types and levels of students, but its impact on attainment and parity of esteem were more limited. The article concludes that institutional barriers formed the biggest obstacles in the implementation phase, reflected in the contrasting ‘institutional logics’ of schools and colleges.

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